I. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to supporting communication via a wide area network and a local area peer-to-peer network within a common wireless spectrum.
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication; for instance, voice and/or data may be provided via such wireless communication systems. A typical wireless communication system, or instance, a system may use a variety of multiple access techniques such as Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Code Division Multiplexing (CDM), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and others.
Common wireless communication systems employ one or more base stations that provide a coverage area. A typical base station can transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream may be a stream of data that can be of independent reception interest to a wireless terminal. A wireless terminal within the coverage area of such base station can be employed to receive one, more than one, or all the data streams carried by the composite stream. Likewise, a wireless terminal can transmit data to the base station or another wireless terminal.
Wireless communication systems leverage various portions of wireless spectrum for transferring data. However, wireless spectrum is an expensive and valuable resource. For example, significant costs may be incurred by a company desiring to operate a wireless communication system over a portion of the wireless spectrum (e.g., within the licensed spectrum). Further, conventional techniques typically provide inefficient utilization of wireless spectrum. According to a common illustration, when portions of the wireless spectrum are employed for a wide area network (e.g., a cellular infrastructure network), a significant subset of spectrum over which the wide area network is effectuated is oftentimes unused in a given geographic location or in a given time interval.